“Nothing Left was an underground band which had Mike Beams ( former Exhumed member singing ) plus former Pale Existence members .
The album is brutal .
The author of this article is a nit wit with an axe to grind against me personally .
I challenge him to a boxing match . Am sick of his antics.”

“This site has become worthless. Anyone who still reads it is a moron.”

“Mortician is a great band. The fact that you lumped NL in with them in a negative way is an honor to us and shows what a bunch of gay losers you are.”

“Ironically – the whole reason I re-eleased NL on bandcamp was that I got very tired of how every nit-wit can give his opinion on Youtube etc. and it was very popular on Youtube by the way . But frankly as an artist I know when I have created something good . And your opinions are unnecessary to me as an artist . and I think of you listeners as sheeples for needing sites like yours to tell them what to think about a given album . Frankly- the underground would be better off without social media. without critics. and without sites like this.”

“The current mentality of the metal underground is something I am ashamed to be associated with . Those who are smart should rather play just about any other genre but metal given the current state of its music and critics. Even most of the famous acts you guys cuck for have members working at gas stations etc and have to pay for their own tours etc, The labels you worship like Relapse are run by one guy basically . The whole thing is an illusion . When there is a big concert most of the money is going to the big beer companies – not the musicians or labels.and no one is making any money or getting many hot chicks . and theres not much good music coming out in this genre, except for the stuff you guys rip on . So you tell me – whats the whole point of underground metal again? you guys mostly cuck for the famous bands and diss the underground ones . Its a fairly transparent formula you use . Its for retards frankly.”

“A lot of us experienced underground metal musicians could write much better articles than you so called experts. Sure – the site would probably be not as “popular” because banal negativity of anything not trending would not be our thing . But in terms of actually doing what the site purports itself to do – bringing underground bands to public’s attention – the average 10-15 year vet of actual underground bands would write better articles than you guys .
Articles should appeal to reason and to artistic intent instead of offhanded sophistry and overly- critical sense of self- entitlement of your pathetic younger generation . Where you never put any art that you created yourself for criticism, but instead free-ride off the backs of hard working musicians while you sit back and sip on your latte mocha frapuchino or however you spell it.”

“According to my bandcamp site stats the critic only listened to part of 2 songs by the way before issuing his hit piece. He missed that there are also black metal riffs mixed in for instance , and he missed the fact that the album is percussive and that the simple song names reflect things such as the drum fills. For instance the song Bludgeoned begins with smashing tom hit fills as if bludgeoning something . Or that Tank Crush Skull that song is meant to replicate the sound of a tank but through using the whole band to create that . Critic is a moron.”

“Current writers have never made the personal sacrifices necessary to metal to where they have a decent perspective on being an artist . Thinking its their job to trash the underground artists who sacrifice their time and effort to bring you free listening material is counterproductive. These sadistic metal review articles are pure negative garbage in general and reflect poorly on the authors who penned them .
The sadistic metal reviews are also very poorly written and their authors lack the experience and authority to even have the right to judge these releases.”

“In the 90s – when metal was actually good – the underground was not filled with negative snobs. Now that metal sucks dick – all you nerds are on here shitting on the underground bands who work hard and make sacrifices to bring you mostly free listening .
You are like black people who complain about not getting enough welfare.
You are thankless miserable pieces of shit.”

“I love Dismember. But this article highlights what sucks dick about this site:This site is a cuck for already established bands
while shitting on the majority of underpaid hardworking underground bands .”

“My criticism is for the so called “staff” written articles. Not for the sites founder. But overall metal needs to reach a much higher level of maturity. Metal used to be a community of misfits who embraced each other because they did not fit in . Bands were seen as expressing themselves. Now the whole thing is about trying to be cool, trendy, and popular. Metal community is turning into something very lame – not unlike American Idol – but for metalheads. The more you are hated by zines such as this – the better a job you are doing frankly of not following their butt-wad trends.”

The majority of underground bands justifiably never earn a profitable return on their material as their material is derivative, boring dreck. Cefala misguidedly recreating the sound of tank treads driving over skulls simply doesn’t convey the desired emotion well as the opening to Terminator 2 does visually or Bolt Thrower musically. Why should anyone expect positive reviews of a recording whose sole artistic aim is emulating the noise of industrial machinery anyway? Nothing Left’s backhoe noises were trashed the same as Portal’s vacuum cleaner.

Steve complaining that we treated him worse than Fred Estby is unfounded too. Steve was treated cordially when interviewed years ago and I myself negatively reviewed both Indecent and Obscene and Massive Killing Capacity. If he expects the same amount of reverence, that will never happen; Fred Estby played on and wrote much of two of the most beloved death metal albums of all time while Steve only played in a few good but not great experimental bands, none of which ever recorded an album published by a decently distributed label. Stating that critical thinking and appreciating well-written music are trends, Steve Cefala has clearly aligned himself with the scenester “pat each other on the back, hand out participation trophies, and suck down artificial cheese grease at Pizza Hut afterward” funderground tee-ball team.

Asgard 2 preferably feeding a Sennheiser HD 600 or 650. The O2 is terrible, op-amp crap that clips itself designed by an internet troll while the Schiit Asgard 2 is a class A, no overall feedback, discrete design.

I think it’s unfortunate that this has taken this turn of animosity and resentment. Brett’s review of the Dawning split is not bad at all. It appears objectively expressed to the best of his ability what he actually perceives in the music. I don’t see any potshots or low-blows in it or irrational dismissal. Another musician might have taken the same critique as a helpful gauge of where his band is at and used it as fuel and stimulus toward the production of the next work. I do think criticism serves a vital function, as long as it stays fair and more on the constructive side. I think good criticism itself is an art, because to do it one must navigate a middle ground full of opposing tensions, without being pulled too much to trashing and destruction, and without being pulled too much to back-patting and compliments. I also read the “Nothing Left” demo 1999 review – I hadn’t read it before, and I don’t think it’s that bad either. I myself have a sick and twisted imagination, running into dark regions, and all the opposites in me too. So the vividly descriptive language used in the review of the Nothing Left demo to describe the music I actually liked. I’m being straight-up honest. Certain things are definitely an acquired taste. Much taste is subjective and feeds itself on moods. I’ve listened to avant-garde music which really pushes the boundaries, playing with pure noise, so deep bass rumbling or industrial sounds, like a tank rolling I don’t necessarily take as insulting or dismiss as possibly being used to explore notions of what “music” actually is. For instance, Steven Stapleton and Nurse with Wound apply a Dadaist aesthetic to the making of “music” and have one album entitled Thunder Perfect Mind and a track called “Cold” that literally in percussive rhythm sounds like a machine, sometimes a washing machine, then a heart monitor sound effect moving in, then a xylophone played like wind-chimes overtop, with a randomness running up and down it, as well as other bizarre touches woven in. “Chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table”, as Lautreamont famously wrote in Maldoror. Mr. Stapleton asked himself, “What would that sound like?” – and that’s what he has explored, expanding into fantastically bizarre variations, the wilder and more “out there”, the better. The point is some of the same terms used to describe the music of Steve’s bands probably would delight Mr. Stapleton. Actually he’d probably think the writers here are much too safe and conventional for his own personal taste.

Reductionist thinkers. We live in an open and wildly chaotic field of signs and symbols. Whether one likes it or not, it’s just a raw fact. You guys are stuck staring at a road sign, having never walked the terrain beyond it. I think of certain areas as fields of exploration, and in that, process is more of what’s engaged in, not just the end result. Both to me are intimately entwined. How would one know of any “valuable end” unless one actually ventured forth and risked failure? “Life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.” You both strike me as being a couple of accountants in how you think. Cheers to you anyway.

I sort of bet you aren’t much more than an accountant yourself. Likely a student. If you were an Arctic explorer, an ancient Archaeologist, a Navajo Shaman turned desert snake, or the electro-spirit reincarnation of Lemminkainens Mother, than you likely wouldn’t be commenting on the same internet post.

Dada is reaction and reduction. Accountants perform a function. The past is alive, death is the only…yada, yada.

So did you guys break up? Or will you be getting back together at some point? He really does seem like a nice guy, and maybe some of the things you said were done so in the heat of the moment? You should give each-other another chance.

over the years, I’ve seen DMU cordially and professionally interview bands before going on to absolutely trash their albums later. I don’t believe that is the case here, but I always wanted to ask if DMU staffers are up front in the pre-interview stage regarding their high standards and propensity for scathing critique or if they lull unknowing bands into a false sense of security.

Now that metal sucks dick – all you nerds are on here shitting on the underground bands who work hard and make sacrifices to bring you mostly free listening .
You are like black people who complain about not getting enough welfare.

Interesting hypothesis–shit metal is the white equivalent of gibs me dat? Welfare metal–not good, but everyone can get it.

Wow, the butthurt is strong with this one. While I do not always agree with the reviews here at DMU/DLA I still appreciate the scholarly approach that the writers here employ. Based on this guy’s whining I am definitely not going to bother with this band’s music. Keep up the good work DMU!